Quoted for Truth

I'm feeling rather philosophical today.  Here are some thoughts, profound and insightful.  None of them original to me, but I agree with all. 

Prospero's Precepts -- 11 rules for critical thinking from history's great minds (via inlilac)

"1.  All beliefs in whatever realm are theories at some level.  (Stephen Schneider)

2.  Do not condemn the judgment of another because it differs from your own.  You may both be wrong.  (Dandemis)

3.  Read not to contradict and confute; nor to believe and take for granted; nor to find talk and discourse; but to weigh and consider.  (Francis Bacon)

4.  Never fall in love with your hypothesis.  (Peter Medawar)

5.  It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data.  Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit theories instead of theories to suit facts.  (Arthur Conan Doyle)

6.  A theory should not attempt to explain all the facts, because some of the facts are wrong.  (Francis Crick)

7.  The thing that doesn't fit is the thing that is most interesting.  (Richard Feynman)

8.  To kill an error is as good a service as, and sometimes even better than, the establishing of a new truth or fact.  (Charles Darwin)

9.  It ain't what you don't know that gets you in trouble.  It's what you know for sure that just ain't so.  (Mark Twain)

10.  Ignorance is preferable to error; and he is less remote from the truth who believes nothing, than he who believes what is wrong.  (Thomas Jefferson)

11.  All truth passes through three stages.  First, it is ridiculed, second, it is violently opposed, and third, it is accepted as self-evident.  (Arthur Schopenhauer)"

This strikes me as very sensible advice.  IMO numbers 9 and 11 are especially relevant to many current controversies.

That Writing Gig

 Here is a Telegraph interview with Richard Thompson in which he was asked how he works on songs (among other things, including playing electric vs acoustic guitars): 

"I write out my songs long hand and notate the music rather than trust electronic devices, which I tend to lose. If it is written down somewhere, then I stand more chance of hanging on to it. If I am in a writing mode, and have a couple of spare weeks, I do office hours every day, especially in America where there is a quiet guest-room at the back of the house with no phone. I start really early in the morning, about 7am, and work until noon. If it's going great, then I keep going, if not then I do something else. There are always distractions and everything intrudes but you figure out how to write wherever you are and whatever you are doing. You know, I have written songs with a baby on my shoulder, screaming in my ear. You learn how to write on the train and on the car. I jot things down. But it's best when I can shut the door and plough through."

My favorite line:  "There are always distractions and everything intrudes but you figure out how to write wherever you are and whatever you are doing."

One of my early fiction instructors strongly emphasized getting away from the desk when we wrote.  Go out into the world.  Write in restaurants, on park benches, at the beach.  The objective was to teach yourself to write anywhere and not link the creative process to any one location.  I followed her advice.  I can't yet write anywhere, but there are many places away from the desk that work for me.  I frequently write on my breaks at work.  It's amazing how much can be done in ten minutes!  Every paragraph written or edited gets you closer to a finished work. 

Soundtrack for this post:  Richard Thompson, "If Love Whispers Your Name" (Dream Attic), "Salford Sunday" and "Stony Ground" (Electric)

A Random Quote about Writing

"I can let a sentence go as a good and serviceable sentence without requiring it to wear a little saddle and win the Kentucky Derby. Books, in my world, are made primarily of good and serviceable sentences, surrounding a few polished jewels of prose–if you insist on polishing every single one, I suspect you get a book that appears to have been Bedazzled, or possibly Vajazzled if you’re writing that kind of book, and the glare becomes blinding, to say nothing of the smell of hot glue. Excuse me, my metaphor got out of hand, terribly sorry, will pay for all the damages…"  ---  Ursula Vernon (author of Dragonbreath, Digger, and more) on her blog

There's a lot to be said for "good and serviceable sentences."  Those Derby winners show to better effect in a field of good and serviceable, at least in my opinion.  They can nail the thought to the page, to the reader's imagination.  But I don't think any one sentence should stand out so much from those around it (for either good or bad reasons) that it throws the reader out of the story and gets them thinking about that one sentence.  

It's a balancing act, this writing gig. 


thanks for reading; comments welcome